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My New Storage Unit at the Farm

We’ve had a building project going on at the farm this summer. As you may know, I have a habit of accumulating objects and I have run out of storage space. Rather than searching for empty spaces in existing buildings, I decided to construct an official storage facility upon a remote area of my farm, completely out of view. We chose a unit made by Heritage Building Systems that measures 40-feet by 80-feet by 20-feet and it should take me a good long while to fill an empty space of that size!

1 Heritage Building Systems, the manufacturer, requires that an experienced foundation engineer design all building foundations and we called in Nick and his crew from Dom's Landscaping, who has done a lot of work for me over the years.

2 The building site is on a gradual slope and needed to be graded to make it level.

3 Once the site was level, Nick began measuring for the footing.

4 A well-constructed building sits upon a foundation and beneath most foundations are concrete footings, which bear the weight of the building. The trench for the footing was dug and covered with plastic, protecting it from the elements.

5 The plastic was removed and a different crew began constructing the footing forms.

6 The rebar, which are steel reinforcing bars, were set in place.

7 The concrete arrived and was poured into the forms.

8 As the forms were filled, a trowel was used to smooth the top of the concrete.

9 The concrete was allowed to dry.

10 A couple of days after pouring the concrete, it was dry enough to remove the walls of the footing forms and the walls of the foundation forms were brought in.

11 The foundation forms were erected.

12 Rebar in place

13 The concrete for the foundation was poured.

14 A few days later, the foundation forms were removed.

15 The trench on either side of the foundation was filled in with heavy gravel.

16 The gravel was covered with soil.

17 And the foundation was ready for a building.

18 The storage unit arrived in pieces on a flatbed tractor trailer.

19 The pieces were laid out in an orderly fashion.

20 The builders followed this set of plans.

21 The uprights for the rigid frame were attached to the anchor bolts at the top of the foundation.

22 A stone mason finished off those joinings.

23 With the side frame complete, the first roof rafter beam was set in place.

24 The Hi-Lo was used to lift the roof rafters.

25 Two builders on either side bolted the rafters to the rigid frame.

26 The roof purlins were attached.

27 The door frames were installed.

28 The base trim was installed.

29 It's beginning to look like quite a structure!

30 The wall panels were laid out.

31 And the insulation was unrolled.

32 The insulated wall panels were joined to the rigid frame.

33 With both sides done, the builders worked on the ends of the structure.

34 And then the roof

35 Nearly complete

36 The eave trim and gutters were added on.

37 Inside, the floor was prepared for the cement.

38 The cement truck arrived.

39 The cement was poured and smoothed.

40 Drying time was several days. Electric roll-up doors will be installed at both ends.

41 Shelving units were erected and the storage facility is nearly ready.